Earlier this month, an SEC filing revealed that Google had
quietly
put aside $500 million during the first quarter to prepare
for a possible fine from a Department of Justice investigation.
Later, the Journal
reported that the investigation
was related to Google's practice of accepting ads from online
pharmacies who shipped drugs without requiring a prescription,
sold controlled substances, and shipped counterfeit drugs.

Today, the Journal published a
2003 letter from the National Association of Boards of
Pharmacy (NABP) asking Google to take ads only from pharmacies
that Google verified itself. The letter appears to be a response
to a Google manager who asked for guidelines.

According to the Journal, Google declined to use a group set up
by state regulators in 1999 to weed out illegal pharmacies.
Instead, Google used third-party verification services, and in
2006 switched to a company called PharmacyChecker.com. The NABP
wrote Google and other search engines in 2008 asking them to
replace PharmacyChecker.com because it wasn't effective enough.

Google finally dropped PharmacyChecker.com in 2010 and went with
the suggested program instead.

Google is apparently in talks with prosecutors to settle the case
before it reaches court.